The influence of power upon powerful speech: A social‐exchange perspective

Abstract

Several researchers have proposed that power, rather than gender, accounts for a greater use of powerless language by females than by males. The present study considered whether the manipulation of power as grounded in the social exchange perspective would influence the use of powerful language by males and females alike. The results indicated that males in positions of higher bargaining power used more bottom‐line statements than males in positions of lower power. Yet, the level of power apparently had little impact upon the use of bottom‐line statements by female bargainers.